Winter Field Chapter 31

“Actually, the regular admission exam ended recently, and the exam Mr. Malosen will take is a special one ordered by His Highness the Grand Duke. I heard you yourself boasted of your excellent swordsmanship and riding skills, and since you are our honored guest, I would like to accommodate you as much as possible.”

I never boasted about being excellent… I just scraped together every possible use I might have and laid it all out to try to stay here somehow.

When Rensley glanced toward Gisel, a blank look without malice came back. Rensley had no way of knowing whether the Grand Duke had truly said that, or if the knight commander had interpreted it in his own way.

“My skills are far too lacking to present myself before you, Commander. But I will do my best to meet the knights’ standards…”

“How much preparation time will you need?”

Before Rensley could even finish his words meant for modesty, the commander cut him off with a question.

Rensley couldn’t answer right away and calculated inwardly. Well. It seemed like he would have to read several thick books even at a skim, but wouldn’t it be difficult in a short period? A month? Two months? Wouldn’t that be too long?

“How much time do other candidates usually set aside to prepare…”

“It varies from person to person, but since the admission exam is held once a year, you may take that into account.”

Dark clouds gradually gathered in Rensley’s mind. If the exam was held once a year, that meant preparation took a similar amount of time.

He quickly assessed the situation. Wanting him to take the admission exam was solely the Grand Duke’s idea, and the knight commander was openly displeased with Rensley’s candidacy.

Though he would go through the motions of following His Highness’s order, Rensley felt as though the commander’s voice was transmitting directly into his head, telling him to have the decency to decline on his own at this point.

‘Of course…’

As if such a decent opportunity would ever come his way. Rensley smiled bitterly.

His fluttering heart had grown shabby, but during these boring and frustrating days, just having tasted excitement for a moment was no loss, so it was fine. Besides, if an already finished exam was being held again just for him, it would be a special exam to put it nicely, but wouldn’t it be an unfair admission?

Trying to think of a plausible reason to refuse the offer he had already accepted, Rensley chose his words with a smiling face.

“One week.”

At that moment, a voice belonging to neither of the two suddenly interrupted. Rensley and Anton both turned their heads at the same time.

The person who had only been listening to the conversation up until now added with a nonchalant expression.

“One week is sufficient. Let him take the exam in one week.”

“Pardon?”

The one who asked back in disbelief was none other than the person who would take the exam, Rensley Malosen. Gisel rose and walked closer.

“I know the contents of the order’s admission exam as well. If you concentrate and study, one week will be enough.”

The knight commander wore an expression as if words were surging up inside him, but only for an instant. He shut his mouth firmly and swallowed down his own opinion.

“Then I will prepare the exam for one week from now. Please refer to this for the relevant subjects.”

Anton pulled a small scroll from his chest and handed it over. As Rensley carefully received and unfurled it, various exam subjects were densely organized, just as previously mentioned—history, culture, geography, theories of mercenary tactics and combat techniques one must know as a knight, the bloodline charts of the Oldenland royal family and noble houses, and so on.

‘How am I supposed to study all of this in one week…?’

Rensley felt utterly bleak. It wasn’t something to boast about, but Rensley had never once had an inclination for studying at a desk, and he had absolutely no talent for it either.

Still, being a descendant of the royal family, he had attended various lectures given by royal tutors for the reason that he must not be too ignorant. But he would often doze off from boredom and get scolded. Moreover, because the humans attending the lessons with him were the royal children, class time was no different from being tormented and ridiculed, and far from taking an interest, the classroom increasingly became a space he loathed entering.

According to the judgment of the higher-ups that he only needed to avoid disgracing the royal family’s face, and that a bastard need not study much, Rensley was freed from tedious class time around the age of thirteen. In any case, thanks to having learned to read, he had enjoyed reading afterward, but he only sought out interesting stories like adventurers’ travelogues, romance novels, or war stories, and it had been a very long time since he had done anything that could be called studying.

As Rensley stood speechless, vacantly looking down at the scroll, Gisel snatched it away and examined it. He spoke firmly.

“All the related books are in the library of the sacred tower. Let us begin studying this very evening.”

Even if I stay up all night every night starting today, it seems impossible in one week, Your Highness…

Isn’t that right, Commander?

Rensley inwardly sought agreement as he looked up at Anton. Then, the man who had seemed full of hostility toward Rensley just moments ago also hesitated, narrowed his brow, and answered with a look of faint agreement and pity in his eyes instead.

Unable to openly lament in front of Gisel, who had opened a closed door for him, Rensley only let out a soft breath through his nose.

Once you’ve said you’ll stake money, you can’t take it back. Even the rules of a shell game in the corner of a marketplace are like that, so how much more so the proposal of a nation’s sovereign. He clenched his fist and resolved.

“I will work hard.”

“That is a good attitude.”

Rensley couldn’t answer those words and just blinked. Because, if he hadn’t seen wrong, Gisel seemed to smile just a little, a very little bit.

Does it only look that way to my eyes, Commander? Rensley whipped his head around and looked at Anton. The knight commander, who had been wearing an inwardly surprised expression, quickly composed himself when his eyes met Rensley’s.

“Then I shall take my leave. I wish Mr. Malosen good luck.”

Anton bowed his head in farewell and withdrew, his red cloak billowing. Gisel, who had been briefly sending his gaze to that retreating figure, soon turned back to Rensley.

“There is no reason to delay. Let us begin right now.”

∞ ∞ ∞

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

The heavy sound was the sound of books being stacked on top of thick books. One, two, three… In front of the sight of well over ten books piled up, each volume as thick as a wrist, Rensley’s resolute determination wavered instantly like a stone tower about to collapse.

The feeling of his mind going blank was devastating. In as calm a voice as possible, he asked Gisel.

“Your Highness the Grand Duke… could you read all of these books in one week?”

Not just reading, but memorizing them too—if that were possible, wouldn’t he be no ordinary human? Gisel answered calmly.

“For me, three days would be enough. But since Mr. Malosen has come from a foreign land, I thought one week would be necessary, so I said so.”

‘I see. Your Highness is indeed not an ordinary person… But what do I do when my brain is below ordinary?’

When a person is on the verge of giving up completely, laughter comes out. Even when he was informed that he would be sent to Oldenland as a bride instead of Yvette, Rensley had laughed first. Because it was so utterly absurd. It wasn’t as much as that time, but laughter was about to escape him now as well.

The place where Rensley was sitting was not the library but the Grand Duke’s underground laboratory. Gisel, saying there was no need to unnecessarily attract attention in a library used by many people, had ordered a servant to bring the books to be read, and had also canceled all afternoon research work.

That he would go so far for the private tutoring of a single person was sincerely gratifying, but since it was obvious Rensley would fail to live up to those expectations, his heart slowly withered.

While he was racking his brain trying to restore his crumbling mental strength, flipping through a book with minuscule, grain-sized letters, Gisel was busy combining something at the table where reagents were laid out. When Gisel returned to Rensley, who was clutching his head, he held a glass bottle the size of a teacup in his hand.

“Drink it.”

The liquid, thick in texture and darkly murky in color, was off-putting even before tasting it. Rensley narrowed his eyes and looked at the glass bottle. Suspicion seeped out.

“What is this?”

“It is a potion that temporarily enhances memory and concentration. Drinking it will aid your studies.”

Rensley’s eyes went wide. Uncertainty was laced in his voice.

“Isn’t it cheating to drink something like this while studying for an exam? I want to take the test fairly and squarely.”